The missing component in studies that have attempted to assess the affects of advanced-telecommunications on urban form, and/or the location of economic activity in space, is the consideration and application of the urban system. Thus, in an attempt to justify the urban system as a framework for analysis as well as establish the context of the study, chapter 1 identifies the general characteristics of the urban system from the regional and spatial economic perspective. While the increased ability with which to interact across space and the Internet have and will no doubt continue to have wide ranging implications in, for example, a social and political context, the perspective of this study is purely a spatial economic one.